$$$ Why Fleets $$$

Dan Stapleton

New member
I'm curious. Why even bother with Fleets. It seems like low rates is the norm. Sure , volume adds up but it almost seems like lowballers ran rampant and the prices stuck. As I was cleaning concrete the other night I was thinking..... In that 2 minutes I just made what a Semi Trailer fetches.

I'm not looking on Fleets negatively, these are prices and industry standards that I've learned, mainly on these boards. There are a few possibilities real close to home and I wanted to justify even looking into it. So, if anyone were to offer info, numbers, $ made per hour, day, week etc. I'll be all ears. Thanks
 
I have heard stories here that a lot of people deal with lowballers and the prices suck. I agree that is a big problem with fleets in most areas so if that is a big problem in your area maybe it isn't worth persuing. I had that problem years ago but it seems as if first when the EPA started with all the recovery stuff that ran plenty of washers away from fleets here. It was then and only then we were able to raise prices to a decent level and it seemed as if everyone followed in suit. There is plenty of work in this field here and not to many washers doing fleets here so normally when you get a account and do a good job, it's yours forever. None of us go looking for others work, we all have plenty of our own. Since Katrina it has only gotten better as some others went out of business and we all picked up more accounts with out having to go out and look and prices went up as well.
The good thing is when you get them as I said, they are yours forever, garanteed income, never having to addvertise or go looking for work ever again. Most of my accounts I have been doing for 15 to 20 years and I can't remember the last time I advertised, no names on trucks, no phone number in phone books. To me this seems to be the best way to wash, but then again as I said it might not be the best in other states.
I did the running around doing houses, buildings, parkinglots, trains, planes anything that needed to be cleaned years ago and never stopped running, advertising, or looking. Got old quick! Everyone has to find thier own nitch I guess.
 
I'm curious. Why even bother with Fleets. It seems like low rates is the norm. Sure , volume adds up but it almost seems like lowballers ran rampant and the prices stuck. As I was cleaning concrete the other night I was thinking..... In that 2 minutes I just made what a Semi Trailer fetches.

I'm not looking on Fleets negatively, these are prices and industry standards that I've learned, mainly on these boards. There are a few possibilities real close to home and I wanted to justify even looking into it. So, if anyone were to offer info, numbers, $ made per hour, day, week etc. I'll be all ears. Thanks

decent question Dan, I personally have not had much experience with any type of cleaning but fleets. Although, I did make an honest effort for a man to remove black oil stains from pavement, I couldnt charge him for it though since I couldnt even tell I had done any work. I make good money when I work. For example, one of my jobs is to clean 20 tractor trailer rigs twice a month, then come back on the off weekends and wash out the trailers. I have two of my buddies come help me wash. I have one guy soaping, one guy brushing, and I am rinsing. We knock out the entire fleet in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I charge $15 per trailer, $8 per cab, and $40 to clean up the food that is on the ground. I just made $500 bucks in a little more than two hours. I pay my help 10 percent each. I use powder soap, two maybe three large folgers scoops. About $6 bucks in soap. This may not sound like a ton of cash to you but go get a few of those in a day and you are making a damn good living. The best part is, you just saved the trucking company a lot of money and all there trucks are clean come Monday which makes them happy. Plus, noone can beat that price. Good luck. Hey, teach me how to do flat work because I cant seem to understand how you guys are staying in business.
 
I'm curious. Why even bother with Fleets. It seems like low rates is the norm. Sure , volume adds up but it almost seems like lowballers ran rampant and the prices stuck. As I was cleaning concrete the other night I was thinking..... In that 2 minutes I just made what a Semi Trailer fetches.

I'm not looking on Fleets negatively, these are prices and industry standards that I've learned, mainly on these boards. There are a few possibilities real close to home and I wanted to justify even looking into it. So, if anyone were to offer info, numbers, $ made per hour, day, week etc. I'll be all ears. Thanks

Decent question Dan, I personally have not had much experience with any type of cleaning but fleets. Although, I did make an honest effort for a man to remove black oil stains from pavement, I couldnt charge him for it though since I couldnt even tell I had done any work. I make good money when I work. For example, one of my jobs is to clean 20 tractor trailer rigs twice a month, then come back on the off weekends and wash out the trailers. I have two of my buddies come help me wash. I have one guy soaping, one guy brushing, and I am rinsing. We knock out the entire fleet in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I charge $15 per trailer, $8 per cab, and $40 to clean up the food that is on the ground. I just made $500 bucks in a little more than two hours. I pay my help 10 percent each. I use powder soap, two maybe three large folgers scoops. About $6 bucks in soap. This may not sound like a ton of cash to you but go get a few of those in a day and you are making a damn good living. The best part is, you just saved the trucking company a lot of money and all there trucks are clean come Monday which makes them happy. Plus, noone can beat that price. Good luck. Hey, teach me how to do flat work because I cant seem to understand how you guys are staying in business.
 
Dan,

As stated above when you get a good account and do a good job its yours for a long time. I recently moved and need to start over but the accounts I had I did for 7/8 years. No marketing, steady work/income at an average $125.00 hour.
 
Most of our business is fleets as well, and as others have said it is great guaranteed income. Alot of our fleet accounts we have had for 10 years, so as previous people have said once you get them they are yours for life. We usually get a couple new accounts a year too usually from referrals of different trucking companies.

In fact I just got a new one today because of a referral for a truck leasing company we do work for occasionally. So we just got a extra 30-40 units to wash every 2 weeks.

I also just got my shipment of the soap that AL uses, and while I couldn't get it to work brushless on the USPS trucks I washed today with it. I didn't really expect it to. Since the government is to cheap and only has us wash them once every 3 months. But I am hoping it will really cut down my wash time this weekend when I wash my more frequent accounts.
 
I have heard stories here that a lot of people deal with lowballers and the prices suck. I agree that is a big problem with fleets in most areas so if that is a big problem in your area maybe it isn't worth persuing. I had that problem years ago but it seems as if first when the EPA started with all the recovery stuff that ran plenty of washers away from fleets here. It was then and only then we were able to raise prices to a decent level and it seemed as if everyone followed in suit. There is plenty of work in this field here and not to many washers doing fleets here so normally when you get a account and do a good job, it's yours forever. None of us go looking for others work, we all have plenty of our own. Since Katrina it has only gotten better as some others went out of business and we all picked up more accounts with out having to go out and look and prices went up as well.
The good thing is when you get them as I said, they are yours forever, garanteed income, never having to addvertise or go looking for work ever again. Most of my accounts I have been doing for 15 to 20 years and I can't remember the last time I advertised, no names on trucks, no phone number in phone books. To me this seems to be the best way to wash, but then again as I said it might not be the best in other states.
I did the running around doing houses, buildings, parkinglots, trains, planes anything that needed to be cleaned years ago and never stopped running, advertising, or looking. Got old quick! Everyone has to find thier own nitch I guess.

As usual, Al is right on again. Prices that you can charge do vary depending on location and I think we all could say we'd like to get paid more for what we do, but consistancy means a lot. Pricing can vary fom what I've seen from $1000 to $2000 a day per 8-10 hours of fleet cleaning, and while the amount may not be as large, it is consistant and I don't deal with the public. While we do have our name in the phonebook, we have continued to shrink our ad so now it's super tiny and I think the day is coming when it will disappear altogether. Most our business is gotten through movement of personnel and referrals, while the remaining 5% or so comes through our logos on the trucks or through searches on the internet. And like Al said, unless you really screw up, you have that customer indefinitely. In addition, unlike Florida which seems to be layered in concrete due to copious sunshine, concrete cleaning is not big business up here in the north country which uses far more asphalt.
 
I also just got my shipment of the soap that AL uses, and while I couldn't get it to work brushless on the USPS trucks I washed today with it. I didn't really expect it to. Since the government is to cheap and only has us wash them once every 3 months. But I am hoping it will really cut down my wash time this weekend when I wash my more frequent accounts.

Hey Randy, why is the USPS only letting you wash once every three months? The contract we have says once a month. They must be nasty every time you do them! I hope you charged enough!
 
Hey Randy, why is the USPS only letting you wash once every three months? The contract we have says once a month. They must be nasty every time you do them! I hope you charged enough!

Have not been able to get them to go more often. And have been washing them for 10 years.
They are still easy to clean and don't take that long.
 
Thanks for the replies. It seems like we all have our points. The guaranteed work is so appealing to me after "chasing" work for 12 yrs. The sticking point for me is the brushing, even if it is occasional LOL. I'm going to wait and see how the STW-75 is working for everyone. Thanks.
 
The weather is supposed to be terrible here this weekend.
How do you fleet guys handle that?

Al, are you going to be washing in the tropical storm tomorrow?
:)
 
It really depends on the type of weather we are dealing with. If it is pouring rain for instance and or any sign of lightening then we either push it to the next day or next week. Alot of our fleet accounts can either be washed on saturday or sunday, and even some can be pushed to monday.
Most of our accounts fully understand if weather makes it so their trucks can't get washed, and they never complain.
And then we have a cable company we wash every other weds and thurs mornings and they don't want us to come if it is near freezing or even sprinkling rain, since all their employees use the lot. They don't want it icing up or their drivers going out and getting their trucks dirty same day.
 
Thanks for the replies. It seems like we all have our points. The guaranteed work is so appealing to me after "chasing" work for 12 yrs. The sticking point for me is the brushing, even if it is occasional LOL. I'm going to wait and see how the STW-75 is working for everyone. Thanks.

I got a chance to try it out via downstreaming on my weekly and bi weekly accounts the last two days, and needless to say I am still looking for that ever elusive safe and brushless soap. I am going to setup a upstream injector sometime here in the near future and try that out, and I already know from the brief 10-15 second periods after I turn off the low pressure that upstreaming does work better, but I will reserve final judgment on this product till that time.
 
We pause long enough for the heavy rain to pass, then we resume washing. If it is still raining when we are finished the wash......we don't have to rinse. Makes the day go by a lot faster. We get wet anyhow, why stop washing when it rains??????
 
We pause long enough for the heavy rain to pass, then we resume washing. If it is still raining when we are finished the wash......we don't have to rinse. Makes the day go by a lot faster. We get wet anyhow, why stop washing when it rains??????

Same here, Al. I don't mind it because it does speed up the process and I can guarantee no one will complain about chemical residue on their windows,mirrors, and hoods. I feel it helps a lot, not just for the rinsing aspect, but the chemicals disperse better when the surfaces are already wet.
 
Yeah with the wind we get here while washing trucks we get wet anyway. And if you are one of those people that can't stand getting wet, well then you aren't moving fast enough. We stop for down pours and lightening and that is about it.
 
That's why I wear Dickies because the polyester seems to dry out a lot faster than if I were wearing cotton jeans and shirts. I like comfortable tenny's since I'm walking around and on my feet a lot too. They dry out reasonably well as well.
 
if you guys are wanting a magic soap that doesnt require brushing, try Classic Brown. It is powder, usually ships in 100lb drums. It is a lot cheaper, and way way better. If that doesnt work for you, add some butle.
 
if you guys are wanting a magic soap that doesnt require brushing, try Classic Brown. It is powder, usually ships in 100lb drums. It is a lot cheaper, and way way better. If that doesnt work for you, add some butle.


Where do you get this Classic Brown and what all cleaning projects you use it for, one more how do you apply? Thank you for your responce
 
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